A story of the dress. The meaning of ethnic dress and its applicability to contemporary fashion design: A case study of Slovak ethnic dress in North-Western Serbia
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Fashion, Clothing and Textile Design
Language
en
Pages
127
Series
Abstract
This study seeks to explore the value of ethnic dress for people who still wear it today. The instigator of this research process was a Slovak community in North-Western Serbia, where Slovak elderly women wear their ethnic dress every day when most of their surrounding is dressed differently. The focus of this thesis was in discovering the importance of the ethnic dress in their lives. The thesis also examines the context in which this dress exists. Furthermore, it analyses the factors the influenced the development of the ethnic dress as well as the dress wearing practices. The main research method used to gain insight into this topic was ethnography, specifically, fieldwork interviews and participant observation. The interviews were conducted in the field of research and on the focus group consisting of wearers of ethnic dress and their descendants. The main findings of this study reveal the confronting ideologies that exist in this society and are reflected in their ethnic dress. It also describes the importance that is attributed to the dress by its wearers and the reasoning behind their dressing practices. Finally, the findings of this study were used in designing a fashion collection as an appreciation of the researched dress. The collection used the elements of the ethnic dress that were placed in contemporary environment, and therefore given new meaning.Description
Supervisor
Hirvonen, PirjoThesis advisor
Lehtinen, IldikóLaitinen, Tuomas
Keywords
community, design process, dress, dress wearing practices, ethnic dress, ethnicity, fieldwork, inspiration